* * *
—
She talked to Jane about it that night, and Jane advised her to call one of the lawyers she’d recommended. Eileen said she would. She had no other choice now. She wanted rules he had to live by. Everything had fallen apart so quickly, she still couldn’t get her mind around it. Their marriage had disintegrated. It had been rotting from the inside, like a house full of termites, until it collapsed into a pile of dust.
The boys were asleep, and she checked on Pennie before she went to bed. She was reading her college essays on her computer and looked up when her mother walked in.
“Are you okay?” Eileen asked, and Pennie nodded.
“He was such a jerk, Mom,” she said, as tears filled her eyes. All illusions she’d had about her father were over.
“The boys said the girl is really beautiful and very young, and she looks like a teenager.”
“She’s twenty-seven, and probably a whore. I hate her.” There was no question about where her loyalties lay now, and Paul knew it too. They all did. And so did Olivia. She thought it would probably turn into a full-on war soon. Pennie, Eileen, Paul, and Olivia all fell asleep that night thinking about it. Just as her mother had predicted, Olivia thought. There would be casualties. There already were, and she and his children had been the first ones. He was a fool if nothing else. Her illusions about him and how smart he was had taken a hard hit.
Chapter 8
Olivia told Paul she needed some time to herself the next morning, which concerned him. The meeting the day before with his kids had taken a heavy toll. He went back to his apartment, and she said she’d call him later. Then she dropped by her mother’s apartment.
She told her about the disastrous meeting over coffee in the kitchen since the cook was off.
“You were right,” she said quietly, “it gets messy.”
“It’s inevitable with the undoing of a marriage,” Gwen said. “It’s not a happy thing to be part of. You have to be awfully serious about him to want to go through it. And his children will blame you for many years, maybe forever.”
“I can see that now. His daughter was looking daggers at me, and I don’t blame her. I would have too, in her shoes. He misjudged it completely, and I became the sacrificial lamb. Now they hate me.”
“Do you want to marry him?” her mother asked, and Olivia hesitated.
“I don’t know. Not now anyway. I’m too young to get married. There’s still a lot I want to do. I’ve seen his kids now. That’s a lot to take on, especially if they hate me. I didn’t understand all that before. It’s different once you see them. They’re very real.” And so was his wife, although she’d never seen her.
“Breaking up a marriage is a big responsibility,” her mother reminded her. “You’d better be ready for it if this is what you’re doing and he is who you want.”
“He’s handsome and sexy and we have fun, but he’s dragging a wagonload of baggage with him. That’s the part I’m scared of.”
“It comes with married men, especially if they have kids.”
“I’m beginning to get that. He made it sound like everything was all free and easy, and they lived separate lives and the marriage was dead. His kids don’t seem to think so, and I’ll bet his wife doesn’t either. He’s the only one who does.”
“Maybe you need to slow it down a little,” her mother suggested gently, and Olivia nodded.
“Yeah. Maybe.”
“Real people are going to be hurt and I’d rather you not be one of them.” Olivia didn’t like being hated either, especially by Paul’s children. Their looks at Serendipity had sliced right through her like a knife. She knew she would never forget it, and she suspected they probably wouldn’t either.
* * *
—
Eileen made breakfast for the kids on Sunday, and dropped them off at their various activities the day after they returned from their visit to their father. They were all in better spirits than when they got home, and none of them talked about it. Eileen took the boys to soccer practice, and gave Pennie a ride to a friend’s. They only had one car now, since Paul had taken his to the city, and Eileen couldn’t spare hers. She was on the move all the time.
A week later, two weeks after Paul had left, she was surprised by how efficiently things were running. She had always thought that she would be lost without him. She was startled to discover that she wasn’t. It had been disorienting at first, but she had found her bearings. It was lonely at times, but she was lonely when she was living with him too. He came home late from work every night, went to client dinners without her, and most of the time he didn’t talk to her when he got home, he was too tired. He played golf and tennis with friends on the weekends. He loved his children, but most of the time he didn’t help her with them, so life without him wasn’t very different.
She said as much to Jane too, that life without Paul was easier in a lot of ways. She had to take care of the children entirely herself, but she didn’t have to take care of him too. Even after only two weeks, it was liberating, and she was coping with everything she had to do.
“Well, there’s a piece of information for you,” Jane said drily.
It annoyed Eileen that he was having all the fun now, with a hot new girlfriend and no family he had to come home to. He could do whatever he wanted at night, without making excuses, checking in, lying, or commuting. He had the best of the deal, while she did all the drudgery, cooking, laundry, and driving, and helped Pennie with her college applications. She had someone to come in and clean the house, but everything that related to the children had always fallen to her to do, and still did.
It had shaken her when the twins described what Olivia looked like. She was younger, but it woke Eileen up to what a drudge she’d become. She didn’t care how she looked and how she dressed, and she wanted to change that. She started wearing makeup again. Pennie noticed immediately and told her she looked great. She took a little more care with how she dressed and threw her oldest running shoes away and bought new ones. It didn’t make a huge difference in her appearance, but it lifted her spirits. She was thinking about her future.
She tried to impart what she was learning to her daughter, and told Pennie not to give up her dreams for anyone. She thought it was the biggest mistake she had made when she married Paul. She had given up editing and her dreams of working in publishing. They had focused on what he wanted, and what he had given up when they got married, and never on her. She was determined never to let that happen again, with Paul, or anyone else. She had to matter too, and not just as the workhorse to serve everyone else’s needs.